Japanese Market Slightly Higher

The Japanese stock market is slightly higher after the long weekend on Tuesday, extending the gains in the previous two sessions, with the benchmark Nikkei index just below the 27,900 level, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight, even as traders remain spooked as more prefectures are under the state of emergency until the end of the month amid the surge in the coronavirus‘s delta variant infections, hampering economic activity.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index is gaining 61.82 points or 0.22 percent to 27,881.86, after touching a high of 28,128.61 earlier. Japanese markets closed for a holiday on Monday. Japanese shares closed modestly higher on Friday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing are gaining almost 1 percent each. Among automakers, Honda is edging down 0.5 percent, while Toyota is gaining almost 1 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is edging up 0.3 percent and Screen Holdings is adding 0.5 ercent, while Tokyo Electron is edging down 0.6 percent. In the banking sector, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial and Mizuho Financial are gaining almost 2 percent each, while Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is adding more than 1 percent.

The major exporters are mixed, with Sony losing more than 2 percent and Canon edging down 0.4 percent, while Mitsubishi Electric is gaining almost 1 percent. Panasonic is flat.

Among the other major gainers, Mitsui Mining & Smelting is gaining almost 11 percent and Dowa Holdings is adding almost 7 percent, while Otsuka Holdings, Daiichi Sankyo and Isuzu Motors is up almost 6 percent each. Shionogi is higher by 4.5 percent and Marui Group is adding more than 4 percent, while Keisei Electric Railway and West Japan Railway are adding almost 4 percent.

Conversely, Sumitomo Metal Mining is losing more than 5 percent, BANDAI NAMCO Holdings is down 3.5 percent and Ebara is lower by almost 3 percent.

In economic news, Japan posted a current account surplus of 905.1 billion yen in June, the Ministry of Finance said on Tuesday. That exceeded expectations for a surplus of 779.8 billion yen following the 1,979.7 billion yen surplus in May. Exports were up 47.7 percent on year at 7,137 billion yen and imports rose an annual 33.8 percent to 6,488 billion yen for a trade surplus of 648.5 billion yen. The capital account showed a deficit of 36.7 billion yen, while the financial account had a shortfall of 637.0 billion yen.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 110 yen-range on Tuesday.

On Wall Street, stocks turned in another mixed performance during trading on Monday after ending the previous session on opposite sides of the unchanged line. While the Dow and the S&P 500 pulled back off last Friday’s record closing highs, the tech-heavy Nasdaq edged slightly higher.

The Nasdaq inched up 24.42 points or 0.2 percent to 14,860.18, but the S&P 500 slipped 4.17 points or 0.1 percent to 4,432.35 and the Dow fell 106.66 points or 0.3 percent to 35,101.85.

The major European markets also finished the day mixed. While the U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index crept up by 0.1 percent, the French CAC 40 Index and the German DAX Index both edged down by 0.1 percent.

Crude oil prices declined sharply on Monday amid concerns about outlook for energy demand after China imposed travel curbs at many places in the country, aiming to halt the spread of the delta variant of the coronavirus. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for September ended down $1.80 or 2.6 percent at $66.48 a barrel.

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